SAP increases software support charges

SAP customers will pay more for software support after the company announced it would be moving all customers onto its more expensive Enterprise Support package.

Customers "will be transitioned" to SAP's recently released Enterprise Support package as of 1 January 2009.

Launched earlier this year to new customers, SAP says 350 customers are already signed on. "As part of this transition, current customers will begin experiencing some of the added benefits of SAP Enterprise Support, beginning in July at no additional cost, with graduated pricing beginning in January," SAP said.

Replacing previous support offerings, including SAP Standard Support and SAP Premium Support, SAP Enterprise Support provides SAP support through a 24/7 service-level agreement, continuous quality checks, support advisory and advanced support for implementing SAP enterprise resource planning and other software, SAP said.

Beginning in January 2009, there will be a graduated pricing programme that incrementally moves customers from their current pricing agreement for SAP Standard Support or SAP Premium Support, to the SAP Enterprise Support pricing model of 22% of licence fees by 2012.

A customer currently paying 17% of licence fees through SAP Standard Support in 2008 will pay a rate of 18.3% for SAP Enterprise Support in 2009. The fees will then steadily go up before reaching 22% in 2012.